In this contribution, we present our progress on trapping and laser cooling singly-ionized ¹⁶⁹Tm⁺. These ions, which to our knowledge have never been optically cycled before, possess a nuclear spin of 1/2, large magnetic dipole moments, and an abundance of metastable states accessible with common diode lasers. These characteristics make ¹⁶⁹Tm⁺ a promising candidate for quantum information applications, including higher-order qudit gates.

We identify several potential optical cooling cycles, state preparation and measurement (SPAM) schemes and qubit gates. Relevant optical transitions were characterized through absorption spectroscopy using a hollow-cathode lamp and fluorescence measurements in an ablated ion plume. A detailed overview of our experimental apparatus is given, which is capable of co-trapping Tm⁺ and Ba⁺ ions as well as introducing a buffer gas.